Raphael, Gauguin, Dead Egyptians Parade Across Europe: Preview

"The Riva Degli Schiavoni, Looking West" by Canaletto. The work is in the exhibition "Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals" at the National Gallery, London from Oct. 13 to Jan. 16. Source: National Gallery via Bloomberg

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Whether there’s a double-dip
recession or not, London’s autumn exhibitions indicate a return
to a confident, blockbuster mode. The first to open is small,
though it may well be thrilling.

To mark Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain in September,
the Vatican Museums are lending four tapestries designed by
Raphael to the Victoria & Albert Museum (Sept. 8-Oct. 17). This
will be the first time that the textiles will have hung side by
side with the survivors of Raphael’s original designs -- or
cartoons -- which belong to Queen Elizabeth II, and have been
displayed in the V&A since the 19th century.

That might not sound too exciting, yet artistically and
historically it’s a big deal. Raphael’s tapestries were intended
as one of the glories of the Sistine Chapel. They were
commissioned by Pope Leo X shortly after Michelangelo completed
painting the ceiling in 1512. These works were Raphael’s
opportunity to compete with his great, and bitter, rival.

They were also a chance for Pope Leo, who was a Medici, to
put his mark on a building that had been constructed and
decorated by pontiffs from the Della Rovere family. It was
expensive. Because of the labor and threads of silver and gold
that went into them, the tapestries cost roughly five times as
much as Michelangelo was paid for his work on the ceiling.

Gauguin the Sinner

Surprisingly, there’s a tenuous connection between this
papal art and the autumn exhibition with the greatest wow factor:
“Gauguin” at Tate Modern (Sept. 30-Jan. 16, 2011). Gauguin was
the sort of lapsed Catholic who couldn’t quite get the faith out
of his system. Even when he was living in Polynesia, much of the
imagery in his art was Christian -- Eve, the Fall, the Nativity.
He painted himself once with a halo on his head, but the serpent
from Eden was like a cigarette between his fingers.

On the whole, posterity has put down Gauguin as a sinner,
unlike his old housemate Van Gogh, who’s definitely a saint.
There’s going to be huge interest in this exhibition -- billed
as the most significant British Gauguin show in 50 years --
though perhaps not as much as there was in the spring over St.
Vincent, his letters, and the show at the Royal Academy.

Third of the big European art events of the season is
“Claude Monet (1840-1926)” at the Grand Palais, Paris, (Sept.
22-Jan. 24, 2011). You may feel there have been an awful lot of
Monet shows, and there have. This one, which is a whole-career
retrospective, will be special for a simple reason. It will
include his very large works, early and late, that are usually
considered too big to be loaned. It’s a unique chance to see the
full range of this great and popular artist’s work.

Mad Gentlemen

There’s nothing as stellar on the menu elsewhere. The
National Gallery in London has “Venice: Canaletto and His
Rivals” (Oct. 13-Jan. 16, 2011), a show that may throw light on
the mania of 18th-century British gentlemen for buying views of
La Serenissima. At the National Portrait Gallery is an attempt
to reassess Thomas Lawrence in “Regency Power and Brilliance”
(Oct. 21-Jan. 23, 2011). Lawrence mainly devoted his talents to
making early 19th-century Britons, including the obese and
corseted George IV, look more glamorous than they were. Does
that prevent him from being a great artist? We shall see.

The British Museum has “Journey Through the Afterlife:
Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead” (Nov. 4-March 6, 2011), which
is not a major loan show -- many of the exhibits come from the
museum’s own collection -- yet may be fascinating. The Courtauld
Gallery has one of those niche shows it does well, this time
devoted to Cezanne’s Card Players (Oct. 21-Jan. 16, 2011).

On the photography front, there is Eadweard Muybridge at
Tate Britain (Sept. 8-Jan. 16, 2011). Another Briton who
presented himself as more glamorous than he was -- real name:
Edward Muggeridge -- Muybridge emigrated to the U.S., where he
took up photography. His greatest fame comes from the pioneering
sequences he took of human and animal movement, which were
immediate precursors of cinema.

In animated versions of these we see horses and naked
contemporaries of Van Gogh and Gauguin come jerkily and briefly
to life. Muybridge also shot his wife’s lover dead in 1874, but
was found innocent on grounds of justifiable homicide by a jury
in Napa County, California, for which fans of photography, if not
of justice, can be grateful.